1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a produce handling process and machinery and particularly to an improved process and machinery for cleaning, scrubbing, drying and polishing fresh fruit and vegetables.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Machinery and processes currently used for cleaning and handling fruit and vegetables have not changed significantly in many years. An informative description of the art is found in "Packingline Machinery for Florida Citrus Pakinghouses", by W. F. WARDOWSKI ET AL, published by the Cooperative Extension Service, Univ. of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, 1987. For the cleaning process, essentially, a line conveyor device is provided with a series of parallel rotating brushes which engage and clean the wetted surfaces of produce passing over them. A typical machine for this purpose has two parallel side rails, spaced anywhere from 24 to 96 inches apart, defining the path of the advancing produce. The length of the side rails depends on how many cleaning brushes are to be used to span the rails. Along each side rail there are pillar block bearings mounted on 5 inch centers. The brushes are each rotatably mounted between two bearings, with one end on one side rail and the other on the opposite side rail. Typically there are anywhere from 4 to 48 washer brushes per machine. These rotary brushes either have shafts extending from the brush core or drive pins which are inserted into the brush core. Sprockets are mounted to the shafts or pins of the brushes and a chain fits around all of the sprockets on one end of the brushes through which they are driven. On a shaft type machine, two bearings and a sprocket are required for each brush so that a 36 brush machine has 72 bearings, 36 sprockets and a large amount of chain. On a drive pin type machine, each brush has two bearings, one sprocket, one drive pin and one idle pin. Such a 36 brush machine requires 36 drive pins, 36 idle pins, 36 sprockets, 72 bearings, a large chain and a lot of chain guards. In some applications the brush drives are staggered from one end to the other to make every other brush rotate in opposite directions. These types of machines have one motor and a gear box to power the brushes and one motor and a gear box to power the clean out part of the machine. The clean out part has a large number of moving parts, chains and sprockets and on most machines the wash water and debris just drop to the floor beneath the machine where some makeshift arrangement is used to restrain their dissemination.
Problem to be Solved:
Since these machines lack self clean-out capability, the chances of damaging the produce due to over cleaning, scrubbing, or polishing is increased. The large number of moving parts cause much noise and usually have to be replaced periodically. Accordingly, the maintenance requirements on these machines are high.
Additionally, in operation, the produce is put in at one end on top of the brushes and is pushed by the following produce along the line to the next set of brushes. In this type of machine the produce usually finds its own axis and is cleaned, scrubbed and polished about a small central portion or zone while passing along the machine, resulting in uneven processing.
Objects:
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a method and means for processing produce that offers low maintenance and more complete cleaning, scrubbing, drying and polishing.
It is another object of the invention to provide a method and means utilizing centrifugal force for efficiently processing produce to achieve 360 degree treatment of the produce surfaces and a 360 degree discharge of produce to a single discharge path.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a means for processing produce that is adaptable to different forms for efficiently performing the various functions of cleaning, scrubbing, drying and polishing.